Caste and Ethnicity

Ethnic Groups

Nepalese society was ethnically diverse and complex in the early
1990s, ranging in phenotype (physical characteristics) and culture from
the Indian to the Tibetan. Except for the sizable population of those of
Indian birth or ancestry concentrated in the Tarai bordering India, the
varied ethnic groups had evolved into distinct patterns over time.

Political scientists Joshi and Rose broadly classify the Nepalese
population into three major ethnic groups in terms of their origin:
Indo-Nepalese, Tibeto-Nepalese, and indigenous Nepalese. In the case of
the first two groups, the direction if their migration and Nepal's
landscapes appeared to have led to their vertical distribution; most
ethnic groups were found at particular altitudes. The first group,
comprising those of Indo- Nepalese origin, inhabited the more fertile
lower hills, river valleys, and Tarai plains. The second major group
consisted of communities of Tibeto-Mongol origin occupying the higher
hills from the west to the east. The third and much smaller group
comprised a number of tribal communities, such as the Tharus and the
Dhimals of the Tarai; they may be remnants of indigenous communities
whose habitation predates the advent of Indo-Nepalese and Tibeto-Mongol
elements.

Even though Indo-Nepalese migrants were latecomers to Nepal relative
to the migrants from the north, they have come to dominate the country
not only numerically, but also socially, politically, and economically.
They managed to achieve early dominance over the native and northern
migrant populations, largely because of the superior formal educational
and technological systems they brought with them. Consequently, their
overall domination has had tremendous significance in terms of ethnic
power structure.

Within the Indo-Nepalese group, at least two distinct categories can
be discerned. The first category includes those who fled India and moved
to the safe sanctuaries of the Nepal hills several hundred years ago, in
the wake of the Muslim invasions of northern India. The hill group of
Indian origin primarily was composed of descendants of high-caste Hindu
families. According to Joshi and Rose, "These families, mostly of
Brahman and Kshatriya status, have spread through the whole of Nepal
with the exception of the areas immediately adjacent to the northern
border. They usually constitute a significant portion of the local
elites and are frequently the largest landowners in an area." This
segment of the Indo-Nepalese population, at the apex of which stands the
nation's royal family, has played the most dominant role in the country.
Other ethnic groups, including those of Indian origin that settled in
the Tarai, have been peripheral to the political power structure.

The second group of Indo-Nepalese migrants includes the inhabitants
of the Tarai. Many of them are relatively recent migrants, who were
encouraged by the government of Nepal or its agents to move into the
Tarai for settlement during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. In the early 1990s, this group mostly consisted of landless
tenants and peasants from northern India's border states of Bihar and
Bengal. Some of these Indian migrants later became large landowners.

The north Indian antecedents of a number of caste groups in the hills
(that is, the first group of Indo-Nepalese migrants), which, in the
early 1990s, made up more than 50 percent of the total population, are
evident in their language, religion, social organization, and physical
appearance. All of these features, however, have been modified in the
Nepalese environment. These groups--several castes of Brahmans, the
high-ranking Thakuri and Chhetri (the Nepalese derivative of the
Kshatriya) castes, and an untouchable category--generally are classified
as Pahari, or Parbate. However, in most parts of Nepal (except in the
Tarai), the term pahari has only a limited use in that the
Paharis generally are known by their individual caste names.

Nepali, the native tongue of the Paharis and the national language of
Nepal, is closely related to, but by no means identical with, Hindi.
Both are rooted in Sanskrit. The Hinduism of the Pahari has been
influenced by Buddhism and indigenous folk belief. The Paharis' caste
system was neither as elaborately graded nor as all embracing in its
sanctions as that of the Indians; physically, many of the Paharis showed
the results of racial intermixture with the various Mongoloid groups of
the region. Similarly, the Bhote or Bhotia groups inhabiting the
foothills of the Himalayas--among whom the Sherpas have attracted the
most attention in the mountaineering world--have developed regional
distinctions among themselves, although clearly related physically as
well as culturally to the Tibetans. The term Bhote literally
means inhabitant of Bhot, a Sanskrit term for the trans-Himalayan region
of Nepal, or the Tibetan region. However, Bhote is also a
generic term, often applied to people of Tibetan culture or Mongoloid
phenotype. As used by the Paharis and the Newars, it often had a
pejorative connotation and could be applied to any non-Hindu of
Mongoloid appearance.

An extraordinarily complex terrain also affected the geographic
distribution and interaction among various ethnic groups. Within the
general latitudinal sorting of Indo-Nepalese (lower hills) and
Tibeto-Nepalese (higher hills and mountains) groups, there was a lateral
(longitudinal) pattern, in which various ethnic populations were
concentrated in specific geographic pockets. The deeply cut valleys and
high ridges tended to divide ethnic groups into many small, relatively
isolated, and more or less self- contained communities. This pattern was
especially prominent among the Tibeto-Nepalese population. For example,
the Bhote group was found in the far north, trans-Himalayan section of
the Mountain Region, close to the Tibetan border. The Sherpas, a
subgroup within the Bhote, were concentrated in the northeast, around
the Mount Everest area. To the south of their areas were other Tibeto-
Nepalese ethnic groups--the Gurung in the west-central hills and the
Tamang and Rai in the east-central hills--particularly close to and east
of the Kathmandu Valley. The Magar group, found largely in the central
hills, was much more widely distributed than the Gurung, Tamang, and
Rai. In the areas occupied by the Limbu and Rai peoples, the Limbu
domain was located farther east in the hills, just beyond the Rai zone.
The Tharu group was found in the Tarai, and the Paharis were scattered
throughout Nepal. Newars largely were concentrated in the Kathmandu
Valley. However, because of their past migration as traders and
merchants, they also were found in virtually all the market centers,
especially in the hills, and as far away as Lhasa in Tibet.

This geographically concentrated ethnic distribution pattern
generally remained in effect in the early 1990s, despite a trend toward
increasing spatial mobility and relocating ethnic populations. For
example, a large number of Bhotes (also called Mananges from the Manang
District) in the central section of the Mountain Region, Tamangs, and
Sherpas have moved to the Kathmandu Valley. Similarly, Thakalis from the
Mustang District adjacent to Manang have moved to Pokhara, a major urban
center in the hills about 160 kilometers west of Kathmandu, and to
Butawal and Siddhartha Nagar, two important urban areas in the central
part of the Tarai, directly south of Pokhara. Gurungs, Magars, and Rais
also have become increasingly dispersed.

Most of the Indo-Nepalese peoples--both Paharis and Tarai dwellers
(commonly known among the Paharis as madhesis, meaning
midlanders)--were primarily agriculturalists, although a majority of
them also relied on other activities to produce supplementary income.
They generally raised some farm animals, particularly water buffalo,
cows, goats, and sheep, for domestic purposes. The Paharis traditionally
have occupied the vast majority of civil service positions. As a result,
they have managed to dominate and to control Nepal's bureaucracy to
their advantage. It was not until the 1980s that a prime minister came
from the non- Pahari segment of the population. Despite some loosening
of the total Pahari domination of the bureaucracy in recent years, a
1991 newspaper report, summarized in the Nepal Press Digest,
revealed that 80 percent of the posts in the civil service, the army,
and the police still were held by the Brahmans and Chhetris of the
hills, who comprised less than 50 percent of the population; 13 percent
were held by Kathmandu Valley Newars, whose share of the total
population was merely 3 percent. The report added that even in 1991, the
eleven-member Council of Ministers in 1991 had six Brahmans and three
Newars. Furthermore, six of the nine-member Constitution Recommendation
Commission, which drafted the new constitution in 1990, were hill
Brahmans. In spite of the increasing number of Newars holding government
jobs, they traditionally were recognized as a commercial merchant and
handicraft class. It was no exaggeration that they historically have
been the prime agents of Nepalese culture and art. A significant number
of them also were engaged in farming. In that sense, they can be
described as agro-commercialists.

Most of the Tibeto-Nepalese groups traditionally could be considered
agro-pastoralists. Because their physical environment offered only
limited land and agricultural possibilities, the Tibeto-Nepalese groups
who occupied the high mountainous areas, such as the Bhote and
particularly the Sherpa, were almost forced to rely more on herding and
pastoral activities than on crop farming. They also participated in
seasonal trading activity to supplement their income and food supply.
However, those peoples inhabiting the medium and low hills south of the
high mountains-- particularly the Gurung, Magar, Tamang, Rai, and Limbu
groups-- depended on farming and herding in relatively equal amounts
because their environment was relatively more suitable for agriculture.
Among these groups, the Gurung, Magar, and Rai historically have
supplied the bulk of the famous Gurkha contingents to the British and
Indian armies, although their ranks have been augmented from the Thakuri
and Chhetri castes of the Indo-Nepalese Paharis. The term Gurkha
was derived from the name of the former principality of Gorkha, about
seventy kilometers west of Kathmandu, and was not an ethnic designation.

The Caste System

One integral aspect of Nepalese society is the existence of the Hindu
caste system, modeled after the ancient and orthodox Brahmanic system of
the Indian plains. The caste system did not exist prior to the arrival
of Indo-Aryans. Its establishment became the basis of the emergence of
the feudalistic economic structure of Nepal: the high-caste Hindus began
to appropriate lands-- particularly lowlands that were more easily
accessible, more cultivatable, and more productive--including those
belonging to the existing tribal people, and introduced the system of
individual ownership. Even though the cultural and religious rigidity of
the caste system slowly has been eroding, its introduction into Nepal
was one of the most significant influences stemming from the migration
of the Indo-Aryan people into the hills. The migrants from the north
later were incorporated into the Hindu caste system, as defined by
Indo-Aryan migrants, who quickly controlled the positions of power and
authority. Tibetan migrants did not practice private ownership; their
system was based on communal ownership.

No single, widely acceptable definition can be advanced for the caste
system. Bishop and others, however, view caste as a multifaceted status
hierarchy composed of all members of society, with each individual
ranked within the broad, fourfold Hindu class (varna, or color)
divisions, or within the fifth class of untouchables--outcastes and the
socially polluted. The fourfold caste divisions are Brahman (priests and
scholars), Kshatriya or Chhetri (rulers and warriors), Vaisya (or
Vaisaya, merchants and traders), and Sudra (farmers, artisans, and
laborers). These Pahari caste divisions based on the Hindu system are
not strictly upheld by the Newars. They have their own caste hierarchy,
which, they claim, is parallel in caste divisions to the Pahari Hindu
system. In each system, each caste (jati) is ideally an
endogamous group in which membership is both hereditary and permanent.
The only way to change caste status is to undergo Sanskritization.
Sanskritization can be achieved by migrating to a new area and by
changing one's caste status and/or marrying across the caste line, which
can lead to the upgrading or downgrading of caste, depending on the
spouse's caste. However, given the rigidity of the caste system,
intercaste marriage carries a social stigma, especially when it takes
place between two castes at the extreme ends of the social spectrum.

As Bishop further asserts, at the core of the caste structure is a
rank order of values bound up in concepts of ritual status, purity, and
pollution. Furthermore, caste determines an individual's behavior,
obligations, and expectations. All the social, economic, religious,
legal, and political activities of a caste society are prescribed by
sanctions that determine and limit access to land, position of political
power, and command of human labor. Within such a constrictive system,
wealth, political power, high rank, and privilege converge; hereditary
occupational specialization is a common feature. Nevertheless, caste is
functionally significant only when viewed in a regional or local context
and at a particular time. The assumed correlation between the caste
hierarchy and the socioeconomic class hierarchy does not always hold.
Because of numerous institutional changes over the years and increased
dilution (or expansion) of the caste hierarchy stemming from intercaste
marriages, many poor high-caste and rich low-caste households could be
found in the society in 1991.

Although Paharis, especially those in rural areas, were generally
quite conscious of their caste status, the question of caste did not
usually arise for Tibeto-Nepalese communities unless they were aware of
the Hindu caste status arbitrarily assigned to them. Insofar as they
accepted caste-based notions of social rank, the Tibeto-Nepalese tended
not only to see themselves at a higher level than did the Hindu Pahari
and Newar, but also differed as to ranking among themselves. Thus, it
was doubtful that the reported Rai caste's assumption of rank
superiority over the Magar and Gurung castes was accepted by the two
latter groups. Moreover, the status of a particular group was apt to
vary from place to place, depending on its relative demographic size,
wealth, and local power.

Language

Even though Nepali (written in Devanagari script, the same as
Sanskrit and Hindi) was the national language and was mentioned as the
mother tongue by approximately 58 percent of the population, there were
several other languages and dialects. Other languages included Maithili,
Bhojpuri, Tharu, Tamang, Newari, and Abadhi. Non-Nepali languages and
dialects rarely were spoken outside their ethnic enclaves. In order to
estimate the numerical distribution of different ethnic groups, the
census data indicating various mother tongues spoken in the country must
be used.

In terms of linguistic roots, Nepali, Maithili, and Bhojpuri belonged
to the Indo-European family; the mother tongues of the Tibeto-Nepalese
groups, including Newari, belonged predominantly to the Tibeto-Burman
family. The Pahari, whose mother tongue was Nepali, was the largest
ethnic group. If the Maithili- and Bhojpuri-speaking populations of the
Tarai were included, more than 75 percent of the population belonged to
the Indo-Nepalese ethnic group. Only three other ethnic groups--the
Tamang, the Tharu, and the Newar--approached or slightly exceeded the
one-half million population mark. Most of those non-Nepali linguistic
and ethnic population groups were closely knit by bonds of nationalism
and cultural harmony, and they were concentrated in certain areas.